Manchester United Football Club News

• Nickname:Red Devils
• Founded:1878
• Manager:Sir Alex Ferguson

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Scholes off as United lose

04 Apr 2007 - 22:03:06

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Paul Scholes was sent off as Manchester United lost the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash against AS Roma 2-1 in Italy.

The veteran midfielder was booked in the 26th minute for a needless foul on Christian Wilhelmsson and saw red nine minutes later for a clumsy tackle on Francesco Totti.

Faced with playing for 60 minutes with a man down, United produced a gritty performance and rode their luck on occasions to end the match still very much in the tie after Wayne Rooney grabbed a priceless away goal.

United started the match with plenty of injury concerns with Gary Neville, Mikael Silvestre and Nemanja Vidic all absent and the home side took advantage with a slick first-half display.

Roma took full advantage of the extra man and it was no surprise when they opening the scoring on the stroke of half-time.

Totti took a quick corner and squeezed the ball through to Mancini whose cut-back to the penalty spot was forced home by Rodrigo Taddei via a large deflection off Wes Brown which left Edwin Van der Sar wrong-footed.

After the interval, Cristiano Ronaldo rose to the occasion and was the spearhead of United's increasing attacking moves.

And on the hour-mark the fleet-footed winger broke through two tackles before sending Ole Gunnar Solskjaer free down the right flank.

The veteran striker looked up and clipped over a cross to the back post where Rooney's superb control on his chest took Daniele de Rossi out of the game before the England international slotted a superb shot beyond goalkeeper Doni.

Roma though refused to accept a draw and launched wave after wave of attacks against a tiring United defence.

And they were rewarded after 66 minutes when Mirko Vucinic was on hand to roll home the winner after Van der Sar could only fist a powerful drive from Mancini back to the waiting substitute.

Roma could have taken a huge stride towards ending the tie ahead of next week's second leg but in the final ten minutes wasted a string of chances before Totti drove inches wide of Van der Sar's upright.